Thorn Technologies CEO Jeff Thorn was featured on Baltimore’s Fox45 News last week and spoke about the technologies used to build the location-based notification mobile app Red Alert. Check out the video below for his commentary (note: there’s a pre-roll advertisement added).

Red Alert is a mobile app available on iOS and Android that sends real-time push notifications warning users when and where a rocket is launched into Israel, giving Israelis about 60 extra seconds to take cover. In addition, it gives people around the world an idea of how much distress Israelis are under as rockets are constantly fired at them in the war against Hamas.

“A lot of apps are leveraging users’ location data to provide them with services then and there,” says Thorn. In this case, the Red Alert app uses these location-based technologies to potentially save lives.

Jeff also spoke about how fast smartphone technologies have progressed and compares today’s smartphone processing power to the Nintendo Gameboy, which was once a beacon of handheld innovation. The creation and proliferation of the iOS and Android platforms, the real-time alert capabilities of push notifications, and the data-capture ability of location-based technologies have vastly improved the value that smartphones bring to people’s lives.